GUEST SHOT: Are Nova Scotians being ‘gaslighted’?

Trendy phrase means to manipulate someone by psychological means

Lately, I’ve been hearing the term “gaslighting” more and more.

I’ve heard it in reference to United States President Donald Trump and then again while listening to a few of my favourite podcasts. It feels like it’s become the new buzzword. “Gaslighting.” Then, a friend of mine messaged me saying she felt that so-and-so was “gaslighting” her and I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I googled it: “manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity.”

I’ve realized that’s how I feel as a Nova Scotian and as a Cape Bretoner. We are being gaslighted every day that we live here. Allow me to explain:

On a daily basis, I read articles, hear stories, and personally experience and witness struggle for people on our island and in our province. Lack of access to mental health services, emergency rooms overflowing, schools closing, roads crumbling, high taxes. We all know these struggles. We talk and complain about them constantly. We live them day-in, day-out, and these struggles are very normal to us. As Cape Bretoners, we don’t blink an eye when we hear of a family friend being airlifted or driven in an ambulance to Halifax to receive a medical service unavailable anywhere else in the province. Sydney is a suburb of Halifax. We all know it. Again, I say, it’s normal for us.

Then, a dedicated reporter points a microphone into the face of a politician, asking him or her their thoughts on “what some have called a crisis,” and the politician looks the microphone dead in the eye and calmly says “There is no crisis. Nothing is wrong. [Insert statistic about family doctors or guidance counsellors and recent funding announcement related to the issue]. [Insert comment about how negativity is the obstacle to prosperity].” And we all go on living another day and experiencing another struggle.

This exact thing has just happened with Jan. 24 comments from Premier Stephen McNeil.

So, if we are to give the elected official the benefit of the doubt, one must wonder - “Is this situation really as bad as I think it is? Maybe there is no crisis. Maybe people in my community are overreacting. Maybe I shouldn’t be so negative. Maybe the recent funding announced will turn things around. Maybe what I’m experiencing in my town is normal. Maybe I’m just crazy for feeling that this situation is really dire.”

As soon as these thoughts enter your mind, you have just been gaslighted! It’s like a game! Ding ding ding! As soon as you take a moment to reflect inwardly about whether or not the very difficult reality you experience every day is truly as bad a reality as you feel it to be, you have been gaslighted. Of course it’s as bad as you think it is! As I’ve already stated, we all know that living in this province is really hard. It is really hard no matter what lipstick politicians attempt to apply.

And here is why our Premier or your local MLA are unable to publicly state that yes, the reality we face is hard and it’s getting harder and we have been in steady economic and social decline for the last 50 years: because that would mean admitting that politics is fundamentally unable to address our struggles.

By its very virtue and reason for being, the role of an elected politician, at least by today’s standards, is not able to admit how truly broken we are as a province, because that would mean admitting that he/she has done a bad job. It would admit failure. And, the longer the politician holds office, the less viable it is for him/her to talk about real struggles that citizens face.

It’s because of this fact that I believe politicians cannot fix our province. They cannot fix it, because they are unable to admit how truly bad things are. They’re not interested in difficult, very large, complicated, long-term solutions to our woes. They view our province as a canvas on which they will paint as many small political wins as possible on the road to personal political success.

None of this to mention the stakes in the game for a politician toeing the party line.

This letter isn’t meant to offer an alternative. I have no idea what the solution is or could be. But, I think there is some merit to understanding what the solution is not, wouldn’t you?